363/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me. Wow, only 3 more gratitude posts left including this one!! When I started this journey a year ago, I was a little nervous as to if I would have 365 people to thank. I didn’t want it to come down to posts such as thanking my mailman for the flyers he delivers in that they were the ones that led me on to some awesome deal!! ; ) Early on in these posts, I started hearing from friends that so and so had made “the list”. I didn’t understand what that was until I was told that it was my “gratitude list”. That put some pressure on me to say the least as there was now a “list”. I didn’t want it to be a list and I didn’t want it to be some type of contest. Then I heard that some people mentioned they were in the 80s and others were in the 200s! I do have to make it clear that I haven’t had an order as to who I thank and thus whatever number gratitude post it was has no relation to ranking. Most posts are the night before or a couple of days before. Yes, I saved my dad for his birthday as I did with my children for theirs, my mom was first because well she is my mom but save for them and the final two gratitude posts, no one had a day or a number. The list by the end of Sunday is far from complete. I could thank another 365 people who got me to where I am today and this is what today’s gratitude post is about – to all of the people I didn’t name and there are hundreds of you that have impacted me! So many former students, co-workers past and present, family members, inlaws, bosses, professors, fellow students, random strangers, neighbours past and present, friends, backhanded gratitudees (bullies and the like), service providers, celebrities etc, etc – just so many people who have made me who I am and to all of you un-named in this past year, you are part of this gratitude journey just because you were not personally mentioned here doesn’t mean you weren’t recognized by me. To all the new people that will come in to my life, thanking you in advance as some of you will change and influence me in new ways. Thank you to all of you who came along with me on this 365 day journey as well. Your encouragement and support has gotten me to this end point.

185/365 – people to thank who have had an impact on me. The Truth Is Out There and it’s back. I started watching the XFiles the year I received my first full time teaching job in Richmond and the same September that my daughter was born. Up until the XFiles, everything that I watched was a far cry from intelligent and also never from the science fiction genre. Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon as everyone was mentioning that it was filmed in Vancouver and I wanted to be engaged in the water cooler conversation that was bound to take place. I instantly fell in love with the show and its mythology – although I was more a fan of the stand-alone episodes as the main storyline got convoluted. I stuck with the show through all seasons – even with new main characters introduced in the final years (even watching the movies) when most fans had abandoned the series. My tv viewing over the years has been heavily influenced by both the XFiles science fiction – Walking Dead fits the mould perfectly as well as a strong female character lead – Orphan Black fits the mould perfectly! Thank you Chris Carter for creating an intelligent show that got me thinking about conspiracy theories, aliens, government cover-ups and the fact that science doesn’t explain everything. I can’t say that I always make intelligent television viewing choices but the Xfiles influence definitely colours my choices and for that I am thankful.